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Will Smith Is Heading for ‘The Sticks’
Smith Gets International: Warner Bros. and Will Smith’s Overbrook Entertainment will produce Welcome to the Sticks, an American remake of Bienvenue chez les Ch’tis, which has made a record-setting beret-load of cash in France. The original followed a postal worker transferred from the south of France to the north and featured charming interactions with the locals, but it seems pretty likely that the remake will have aliens in it. [HR]
Stage Mother: Katie Holmes will take a break from debuting new haircuts this fall to appear on Broadway with Dianne Wiest and John Lithgow in Arthur Miller’s All My Sons. This will sadly cause yet another delay in the production of First Daughter 2: Lame Duck Dad. [Variety]
By the Numbers: John Cusack, who previously explored four-digit numbers in 1408, has signed on to 2012, an end-of-days epic to be directed by Roland Emmerich, last seen heading up 10,000 BC — that’s five digits, which is why he’s the director. In other number-related news, this movie will win zero Oscars. [Variety]
Revolt-ing: Steve Buscemi and Ray Liotta are among those who will appear with Michael Cera in Youth In Revolt, adapted from the C.D. Payne novel, in which Cera plays a kid who ruins a family vacation chasing after a girl. Liotta will play Cera’s mom’s cop boyfriend, and Buscemi will play Cera’s dad, who, we’re just guessing, is an unusual-looking, hyper sort of fellow who meets his end by being fed feet-last into a wood chipper. Look, it’s a powerful mental image. [Variety]
Tatum Dear to Hallstrom: Lasse Hallstrom will direct Dear John, a Nicholas Sparks adaptation that will probably — like The Notebook and A Walk to Remember before it — make even the most romantic swooner become a cynical bastard out of spite. Channing Tatum, fresh off his turn as a soldier in Stop-Loss and soon to appear in G.I. Joe, isn’t straying far — this time, the soldier falls for a college student while home on leave. [Variety]